IAEA investigating reports of drones near Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is investigating the reports of an alleged drone attack near the Zaporizhzhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

The factory operators said the vehicles had been damaged, the agency based in Vienna said on Tuesday.

In a report on the incident, the power plant operators said that six drones had been involved in an attack on Friday.

The incident occurred outside the perimeter of the site about 600 meters from the nearest reactor, IAEA said in a press release.

Zaporizhzhya is the largest nuclear installation in Europe. The six reactors have been closed for some time after Ukraine’s large -scale invasion by Russia over three years ago.

The IAEA team in Zaporizhzhya was shown a truck that would have been struck by a drone on Friday. However, the team could not identify any damage or drone debris because they were too far from the vehicles, it was reported. However, they observed the burned grass and other burnt vegetation.

‘Play with fire’

“If this report is confirmed, it would represent a completely unacceptable attack on the proximity of a large nuclear power plant,” said the director general of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi.

“The one behind such attacks plays with fire. It must stop immediately,” said Grosi,

The IAEA boss warned that too many drones are dangerously flying near Ukrainian nuclear power plants, endangering nuclear security.

In February, a drone severely damaged a structure built to contain damage to the nuclear reactor at the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant founded. It is designed to prevent any radioactive version of the reactor 4 unit, which was destroyed during the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky then reported that a Russian drone damaged the protective structure of the Chernobyl plant, which suffered a catastrophic accident almost 40 years ago.

No increased level of radiation was reported after the February incident. The Kremlin denied any Russian attack on the Chernobyl plant.

The IAEA played a central role in the protection and monitoring of the state and the security of the nuclear power plants of Ukraine since the start of the Russian war against Ukraine in February 2022.

The agency regularly sends teams of experts to active reactor sites in Rivne and Khmelnytskyi and has maintained a permanent presence at the Zaporizhya nuclear power plant since September 2022.

Russian forces took control of the Ukraine factory in March 2022.